As MasterCraft learned and tough management requires, strong
collaboration necessitates the sharing of information. While the
information being shared in organizations today is relevant and
useful, there could be more of it. While 22 percent of senior executives and managers say that the amount of information sharing at
their organizations is extremely high, more than a third consider
that information to be extremely relevant or useful to them. The
smaller the company, the more information is shared, and the more
relevant it is.
“I recently left a Fortune 200 company for a much smaller yet
national organization,” says a senior executive at a medium-sized
company. “The focus of what is shared and why it is shared is so
much clearer at the smaller company. It’s remarkable.”
There are two ways to look at information sharing in business.
One is that increasing information sharing is a good thing, arming
more people with more information to make better decisions.
Another way to look at it is that information can get in the way of
someone doing his or her job. The amount of information shared
will always be debated as either not enough or too much. “In our
organization, information is shared on a need-to-know basis,” says
a small-company manager. “Not all information is shared with all
employees, only those involved. That way, only the people concerned can focus on the issue at hand and not have others trying
to add to it.”